The Republican National Convention is designed to fire up the base to make sure its members vote, and to reassure wavering Republicans that they can vote for Trump without being racists but rather staunch Americans.
Do you remember when an emotional trump reached out to people with disabilities, earnestly promising to protect the programs that help to keep them safe? Neither do I! I remember real trump, spontaneously and cruelly mocking a reporter with disabilities in a nationally televised segment.
Do you remember a somber trump at one of the detention cages on the US/Mexico border, shaking his head and saying that treating immigrants that way was inhumane and unacceptable? Neither do I! I remember real trump preening for the cameras, gazing lovingly at a segment of his wall of everlasting shame and autographing it.
Do you remember a justice-centered trump, eyes laser-locked on the camera, promising us that the rule of law applies to everyone, no exceptions? Neither do I! I remember real trump commuting the sentence of his crony Roger Stone and calling out the military to bully and gas peaceful protesters on his path to a Bible-toting photo op.
Do you remember me, sitting in my favorite chair in front of the TV, sucking up every morsel of the RNC sh*t-show? Neither do I! Didn't happen. But thanks to those of you who have the courage and the constitution to watch and report.
Do you remember a leader telling us this "China virus" was no threat and would magically just "fade away"? HELL YEAH! And at every turn, in spite of the RNC's insistence on referring to Covid-19 in the past tense, we need to keep reminding them, and every one else, of the 177,000 (and counting) Americans who have died.
There is a strategy, I suspect, in the failure to pass another relief bill, especially having to do with evictions. People without a fixed address cannot vote. Evictions are highest in cities--where there are generally more Dems than in the rural areas--and among communities of color. This is not just a cynical expansion of extreme misery for the unemployed and the working poor, it is designed to prevent people from voting.
I don't think I am paranoid in believing that every. single. thing. coming out of this White House and the GOP is part of the plan to suppress the vote.
I wonder if there's a way that advocates can help these folks who are being evicted find a new place to live--with a relative, perhaps, or whatever it takes. Then as soon as they have a new address, help them register to vote in the new location.
I not only find it impossible to watch even 1 minute of the RNC; I found I had difficulty reading all the way to the end of todays Letter. My anger at the blatant disrespect for the Constitution, the Rule of Law, and political “norms” sickens me. I thank you Heather for putting all of this in print, but this was a tough one to get through.
Prayers for everyone suffering now with illness, financial insecurity, and of coarse those affected by the derecho, wildfires and impending major hurricane.
I could not watch much of the Convention -Tuesday Evening- but I have read and listened to several critiques. On top of the now typical insults to our intelligence I was appalled, once again, at her inappropriate choice of costume! Silly? Am I too sensitive? I'm in my 80s and have seen a few uniforms on the wrong people.
Olive Drab khaki jacket and skirt, shoulder lapels, metal buttons and leather belt...only missing medals! I don't want to imagine what she was thinking! Did anyone else notice it? Am I giving her too much credit? Was it just poor taste - AGAIN? Or was it a clue to her goal ...the great dictator's "mol"? They're plotting around the kitchen table? Beware that sweet and timid voice and the "empathy" of which she spoke. She SAW the children behind metal fences but I never heard that it upset her. Or that she did anything to stop it.
Thursday night - Trump in his matching uniform? Except that he'll award himself a chest full of medals to go with it! I wish this was all just a very bad dream. Maybe she was hinting that she's planning to do him in so that SHE can be our grand leader and wear the medals???
Absolutely correct. Russian military look. Think she did this once before. Also trump walking into the naturalization ceremony was direct copy of a Putin arrival at a Kremlin ceremony. Joy Reid did a great job in pointing out that the poorly produced role call at the very beginning of the RNC "convention" was in fact the end of convention business. Everything after that has been about the trump monarchy and the royal family. Truly a nightmare for us as individuals and for the USA.
Melania was sporting functional yet formal wear from the Eva Braun Collection that lets you take off from the runway on a stealth mission from Slovenia to the Red Square and beyond! This ensemble is perfect for collecting data, spreading propaganda and delivering disinformation.
Re Melania's empathy: Who remembers what was written on the back of her jacket when she visited the McAllen, TX, family separation center? ("I really don't care. Do you?) I didn't listen to her speech (was it last night, Tuesday?). I wouldn't be able to stomach it because that disgusting jacket would have been all I could see in front of me.
So now I understand why Trump so cuddled and praised the Supreme Leader of North Korea, Kim Jong-un. He was looking for something in return – Kim’s secret propaganda formula!
It was on full display last night – embodied most dramatically/fanatically – by that darling duo of democracy, Don Jr. and Kim (Guilfoyle not Jong-un).
The campaign is on … except the two candidates are not running for the same office. DT is running for Supreme Leader – Biden, for President.
He is already having people chant "12 more years"...he is setting himself up to be the supreme ruler.
If payroll taxes are cut, I won't be able to retire in the 2 years I am planning for...that Social Security money is part of my retirement plan. There are a lot of people where I am, at the same age, who have paid into that fund our entire working lives. Don't think for a second he even thinks about that...he is just using it as another weapon to get what he wants with total disregard for the consequences. My disgust with this administration is beyond words.
I just don't understand why this threat to Social Security isn't hitting him harder. In a pre-tRump world, even hinting at this would doom a candidate to the dust heap.
I heard one of his toadie advisors on PBS News Hour tonight say, when questioned about this, that "The President isn't going to target Social Security", or words to that effect. Hells bells, he what else do you call cutting the money that funds it with no alternative funding in sight? I think what it amounts to is like so much of the rest of Trump's BS - Never mind what your lying eyes tell you, listen to Dear Leader and believe him. All will be well. Uh-huh
News of the forecast of the Chief Actuary for Social Security was truly a Charlie Brown-Lucy Van Pelt football moment for me. I'm charging toward that ball.
To me, the most disconcerting, indeed frightening, thing that the Republican convention has brought us thus far is the spectacle of Trump egging his supporters on to cheer for "Twelve more years." This goes beyond contempt for the implicit norms of Liberal Republican Democracy to contempt for Liberal Republican Democracy itself. What more does Trump, and the Republican party itself, need to do to convince the commentariat that this is Fascism, bold and open? And if you don't like the F-word, at least admit that it is its political equivalent?
A corollary to this is the fact that ordinary Republicans are perfectly okay with this. It's one thing to say, with Howard Zinn and many others, that elites tend toward corruption given their power. It is another to say that an entire population of voters are corrupted. For that's what this is: an unwillingness on the part of the average Republican voter to stop relying on their damaged guts and actually THINK about what they're signing on to. It's not just stupid, it's evil. No other word for it. Hannah Arendt might have been wrong about Eichmann himself, but her point in "Eichmann in Jerusalem" had wider application: you don't have to be a monster to perpetrate monstrous deeds. Some of history's greatest crimes were committed and facilitates by "nobodies". It is hard for me to have a shred of sympathy for anyone who continues to support Trump. He is not the only one responsible for this illiberal, un-democratic, anti-republican mess we are in.
As a philosophy nerd, I am squarely in the radically-social-democratic tradition of John Dewey and the pragmatists. But I am starting to take Plato and Aristotle more seriously, even as I disagree with them. They believed that the only solid, inevitable result of democratic regimes was that they were perfect breeding grounds for tyrants. I think they're wrong, but they do provide food for thought.
A bit of a philosophy nerd myself (currently trying to get my teeth around Hegel, Feuerbach, and Schopenhauer--wish me luck) and it seems so much of what is going on now has happened in other places and has been predicted before. I still think that the big overriding m.o. (modus operandi) of these people is "piss off the libtards". THAT right there is the reason behind practically everything they espouse. They have found a cruel, amoral individual and his adherents/family, devoid of any sense of ethics or morals, who will "stick it to the libtards" at every turn. They are giddy every time it happens. They sat and festered for 8 years under Obama, intensifying their hatred, and now just pissing us off is ALL they care about. Problem is, in their zeal to keep us libtards in a constant state of "pissed-off-ness", they're not realising exactly what they have unleashed. They (and us) are being robbed blind, "taken to the cleaners", and an insane autocrat and his coterie of criminals are taking over our government and molding it to suit their ends.
What "ices the cake" is they are being enabled by a political party that, I believe, know in their hearts that their days are numbered. Their electorate's demographics are shrinking and they know it. So it's like they've hitched their wagon to their last hope to gain any legitimacy and hold on to power. They have closed their eyes to what is happening. Their desire for vengeance/revenge for Obama, and every Democratic leader since Gingrich, has blinded them. Party is all that matters, even at the expense of our Constitution, our governance, the country they profess to love. "As long as we can keep 'pissing off the libtards', it's all okay"...careful what you wish for.
You are absolutely right about this. "Pissing off the Libtards" while the USPS, Social Security, OSHA, etc. ad nauseam are being dismantled before their eyes. Love may be more powerful, but we do ourselves no favors to think that Hate is almost as powerful.
As for Hegel, I have a book to recommend: "Hegel" by David Fritzman. In the Polity Press Classic Thinkers series. It does the impossible, that is, he makes Hegel clear and unconfusing, and relates his work to the present age very well. Highly recommended.
Hegel is pretty dense stuff...one of the German school of philosophers, among others, who influenced the works of Richard Wagner, one of my lifelong passions/obsessions. I'll have to check out the Fritzman. THANK you!
Thank you, Heather, for another great synopsis of a day and evening I didn't have the stomach to watch in real time.
Was talking to a friend last night who works for a small, local municipality. One of the main functions for the town is providing water and sewer services. The town was established in the early 1700s, I believe, by Quakers. During the textile heyday of North Carolina, there were several mills in town; gone now, of course. The population is largely white, blue-collar and elderly.
I don't know what percentage are on disability, but it's large.
Many of the residents are diabetic, obese and living paycheck to paycheck, if they're working. Due to Covid-19, like most places, the town had suspended cutting residents' water or charging late fees for non-payment. They did encourage residents to sign a pay agreement, once the moratorium on cut-offs ended, so that they could get caught-up on back payments. They gave people a month's notice, put it on their bills, on the town sign, on the web site, etc. The very last day to do a pay agreement, a couple of dozen bozos show up to fill one out. Yesterday was cut-off day - over 40 people (in a town of around 1500) had their water cut off. And two called, screaming that they'd been cut off and when told they hadn't filled out the agreement, said, "I didn't know anything about it." One came in to put $20 on her over $200 bill.
These are all Trump supporters. The town is full of MAGA hats and Confederate flags on bumpers of big, honking trucks. And some are wearing a pistol on their hip. (I am not anti-gun, BTW).
These are the people Trump is aiming at and who hang on his every word. If he were to end FICA and kill SS Disability, these are the same people who, deprived of even that small life support, would blame the Democrats. Guaranteed.
I was reading recently that this payroll tax change makes Social Security collapse (become insolvent, unable to pay) by 2023. What if this became a relentless message on the TV, on Fox News, on billboards in these crazy communities? Democrats need to buy huge ad spots in Fox and do nothing but pound this message in--Trump is endangering your Social Security, folks. Just three more years, and these you won't get your Social Security check. I suppose they would just dismiss it as "fake news". I thought the Ronald Reagan ad from Lincoln Project was highly effective, but again, they'd just dismiss it with a sneer, probably. It's a cult, through and through. I was reading recently a carefully done study in PA of Republican versus Democrat response to the USPS slowdowns. All this survey asked--in areas that were rural, with older relatively poor citizens who are highly dependent on USPS for meds and other deliveries--was a single question: how dependent people felt they were upon USPS showing up with their mail each day. Republicans declared they weren't all that dependent--although they clearly were as dependent as the Democrats. The statisticians concluded it was party affiliation that led to a definite skewing of their "perception" of USPS being necessary. So terribly, terribly depressing.
I am reading Paul Begala’s book “You’re Fired”. I highly recommend it. The chapter I read last night was called “This chapter will bear Trump, I guarantee “. He says exactly what you are saying that we need to publicize, shout loudly, say early and often that he wants to take away your Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. He says set a little buzzer on your watch that goes off every ten minutes and when it does repeat the phrase to anyone you can. While this may be a funny exaggeration it is true. That’s what we need to do! Copy the link in your Facebook and Twitter feeds. Whatever it takes.
Not only can I not watch, but I find it difficult to even read about the circus that is the RNC. Makes me sick, angry, and very sad for this country. I will be taking my ballot for the primaries to a safe ballot box today. Wish I was taking the Nov ballot instead. We cannot be rid of this man, his family, and the troupe of sycophants soon enough!
Night 2 was colored by US flags, Marines, White House moulding and a speaking Melania. God was invoked so often, I thought I was in church! The whole show was colored by grievance, but the tone was « kinder » than Night 1. When you have a farmer and immigrant business woman thanking Supreme Leader Trump, the truth and Democrats have a bigger problem. The economy always rules elections, and Joe better counterpunch fast and well. At 69, I don’t want to lose the post office and social security! How about the brazen lies told by the former FL AG. That was the biggest lie moment for me. Thanks, HCR, for detailing the Hatch Act violations which color the entire show. A caution: we Dems still don’t know how to respond to Trump. We better learn fast. The election is coming up. No more Mr. Nice Guy. ❤️🤍💙
This is actually the intended effect of our separation of powers. The actions of Congress require the Executive Branch for, well, execution, for lack of a better word. Even if the Senate was not terribly corrupt, having the Executive branch in the hands of an autocrat make enforcement impossible, for the moment; it's the ultimate version of a "dirty" cop. We have to wait, in agony, for the election and hope that the Body Politic votes for the continuation of our republic, and that the "deep state" they rail at (which is simply the entrenched, non-partisan, ranks of the governmental bureaucracy) can keep us afloat until then.
I will not watch the trump reality show otherwise known as the RNC, but wait for your clear eyed take on it. I cannot help but think the RNC is simply a display of the most baseless dog and pony show that panders to those that thrive on a buffet of disregard for facts and blantant abuse of power and laws. I would like to believe that this Administration has gone as low as it possible can but each day it seems to adjust that bar to a new lower level.
I have not watched any of the convention as I decided long ago watching and hearing the president was not helping my mental health. I follow the news in other venues. I try not to be fearful as that only saps my energy. However, I am retired and although have a small retirement pension and some investments, part of my retirement plan is Social Security. Dissolving this program would definitely put a strain on me although I can still work if I can find a job. I do know of people who depend entirely on the small amount they receive from Social Security. And many of these cannot see past the abortion issue and will vote against their own best interests. As aside, I do not for one minute believe the president is anti-abortion (I refuse to use pro-life to describe the anti-abortion movement) any more than I believe he adheres to the teachings of the Christian faith. I have to sign off as I need to send an email to my state's Democratic party about the campaign against McConnell. If ever we need to go a little lower, it is now.
Why-o-why was there not an effort to stop some of this stuff? What are the enforcement provisions of the Hatch Act? I am presuming that Nancy P et al wanted to hold their fire but this is a sickening desecration. The Dems just come off seeming powerless and naive - and it doesn't feel so hot to support them.
I think the problem is Dems and Lincoln’s (said because the R’s are not the party we think and many left) are following the law and have never faced lawlessness of this magnitude. Heather...what is the recourse for all of this when they obviously don’t care about the Constitution or Laws?
Well, of course the second amendment isn't just for Republicans, but that's an impossible thought. I'm still banking on the vote, and my confidence that a blue wave will be dramatic enough to wash these inept felons out to sea. I'm putting in five or six hours a week doing Dem business and I recommend everyone consider what they can add to the cause. I'm curious, though: what the administration is doing is illegal, but who has standing to contest it in court?
And another problem, besides unlimited pardon power, for example, is American voters and the House are solely n the hands of a corrupt Senate. And here we sit.
What is law? So many laws are being violated, like the Hatch Act, and yet nothing happens. We sit and watch the violations one after another. Unable to enforce anything.
I keep asking this over and over: "WHY do we have all these laws if they are broken again and again and again and nobody does anything???" It's like the system was not constructed to allow for someone like Trump and his enablers, bereft of any sense of morality and ethics, to make a mockery of our laws. No one could ever have imagined such depravity. Voting is just one critical step, but it seems a rather impotent weapon as it happens rather infrequently, especially when compared to the speed and ease of these people shredding our Constitution. We are witnessing a perfect storm threatening our country that, hard to believe, is even more destructive than the massive hurricane currently heading for our Gulf coast. (If there are any of y'all in that area near the coast, PLEASE GET OUT NOW! It is going to be really bad. No joke.) 2020 just keeps on killing us...literally.
Trump and Friends are the ultimate "dirty cop," except the concept has expanded to include everyone at the top of the Executive Branch of the federal government. So, to answer your question, we have laws so that an honest Executive can execute them, and an honest judiciary can order their enforcement. Sorry for the basic civics lecture, but it's these basic governmental structures that have been shockingly, quickly, eroded. Hopefully, these basic structures can be restored just as quickly, given good, honorable management.
I hope that Biden and Company are compiling a long, detailed list of people they will fire at their first opportunity and an equally detailed list of more competent, non-partisan replacements. They will need to be very organized and very good at their jobs, right off. Fortunately, there is a large cadre of good, experienced people Trump has forced out who can probably assist in the restoration of governance, provided Biden and Company are smart enough to reach out to them. They will have an enormous raft of wiped hard-drives, shredded files, and "midnight regulations" to deal with when they walk into their offices on Wednesday, January 20, 2021.
Lets not assume that Biden is going to win and the republican think tanks don't know what they are doing. The republican handlers have shown time and again to be much sharper than their counterparts to come this far and get this much mileage out of a dummy show horse.. They have been able to overcome so many crisis that would have sunk any other presidents because of their tactics and deft messaging that you have to wonder if the leadership on the Dem side are just paralyzed with confusion and hand wringing. Do something!
An excerpt from an article below that appeared in the new statesmen:
The second figure is 40 per cent. That is the share of young voters in battleground states, such as Michigan and North Carolina, who have yet to be contacted by the Biden campaign. It underscores the concern in parts of the Democratic Party that it is failing to reach out to the progressive left.
Young Democratic voters are typically, though not always, more left-leaning than older Democrats. Some in the progressive wing were enraged by the DNC after their most eloquent tribune, the congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (“AOC”), was allocated a mere minute to speak, and at which none of the other prominent left-wing congresswomen – Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib and Ayanna Pressley – spoke at all.
I think that your caveat is very well founded, and the 2016 election made it glaringly obvious that polls only imperfectly measure the attitudes of people willing to talk to pollsters, a population that usually doesn't even include me. And my 20 year old daughter claims to know more than one person intending to vote for Kanye West.
You exhort me to "Do something!" Do you have any suggestions? I'm already a pollworker, I donate what money I can to the Democratic Party and to select candidates, and everyone I know personally is counting the days until they can vote for Biden and a straight Dem ticket. And as tempting as it is sometimes to stand in the street and start screaming, that technique, while briefly enjoyable, doesn't sound very persuasive as to the groups referred to in your New Statesman article.
In other words, I think your caution is very well grounded, and that hubris was a major factor in Ms. Clinton's loss. Trump is clearly counting on the deluded ignorance of the poor and poorly educated, and the venality of the well-off; people with one or both of those characteristics form a large and active voter bloc.
In light of this, what further actions might you recommend? I'll readily take your suggestions, even including the "screaming in the street" option. (Pay me a couple of C-notes and I'll even post it on Youtube. :) )
Not you per se. That was a frustrated exhortation to the Democratic think tank to engage more effectively. Why have they still not engaged the million of youth voters a majority of whom are left leaning? Even a political novice like me can see that AOC deserved more airtime at the recent DNC convention than John Kasich. I may not agree with the views of prominent republican strategists like Karl Rove and Frank Luntz but there is no questioning their brilliance nor their ability to communicate effectively. Do you see anyone that incisive in the Democratic Party ?
By the way your commitment as you describe it above seems exemplary. I am not doing nearly as much as I should be, to be honest.
I'm sure that I'm not doing as much as I could do, either; that's the special guilt that comes from being aware of the danger.
I don't really see anyone leading the Democratic Party, period. I don't know who they are, nor do I know their background, qualifications, or theory of the battle. I'm confessing my ignorance, here; I wouldn't know a Democratic political operative from a Denisovan pole-vaulting oracle. Telling me their names may vaguely help, if you know them, but only if there is copious amounts of material on the internet about them, like there is for Rove, Luntz, and Stone.
But whoever they are, they are probably white, middle-aged, college educated guys like me. Since they are likely sympathetic to diversity issues, there are probably a few high-level white, middle-aged, college educated women around, plus a scattering of other demographic representatives, but as a group they probably reflect the power stratum of American society.
And they probably don't really know how to communicate to the youth voters, and are probably leery of devoting too many resources to a group that too often turn up at the protest, but not the polls.
I sympathize: I don't know how to communicate with the youth voters, either. I can barely communicate with my own children, members of that group. To them, I am simply an old man who is completely out of touch with their reality, but for whom they have fondness. All my education and experience seems irrelevant to them, and for all I know, it is. To me, they are beautiful, mysterious creatures, always on the edge of panic, pushing their way through the murk that I lived in when I was their age.
I wonder if the Republicans actually have a strategy for mobilizing the youth vote, or if they instead simply focus on suppressing it. The latter would likely be an easier task, given their pre-existing tendencies.
I do hope that AOC and her friends can tap into the communication channels inhabited by the youth, and mobilize them for Biden. It's probably even cheap to do, since distribution costs on the internet are a fraction of traditional media; all they need are good production values and attractive programming.
Even then, it will probably be a hard sell for many of the younger demographics.
I am alarmed, to say the least. The people who support Trump and his administration either stand to gain handsomely from his continued rule or they are stone cold stupid.
Trumplestilskin’s charade has gone on for far too long! When will someone just put a stop to his shenanigans? Enough already! How can he continue to break ethical laws without any consequences?
When will the GOP realize that pulling the payroll tax will be a disaster for our elderly and people with disabilities? All these rich members of Congress will never suffer the consequences of diminishing or eradicating these social services. They have it made with their guaranteed retirement funds.
I could not bring myself to watch a single minute of the RNC — and thank goodness for that as the nepotism being brought into play is beyond acceptable. All I can say after these theatrics is: please vote! Our lives, our futures, and those of our children and grandchildren depend on it!
Do you remember when an emotional trump reached out to people with disabilities, earnestly promising to protect the programs that help to keep them safe? Neither do I! I remember real trump, spontaneously and cruelly mocking a reporter with disabilities in a nationally televised segment.
Do you remember a somber trump at one of the detention cages on the US/Mexico border, shaking his head and saying that treating immigrants that way was inhumane and unacceptable? Neither do I! I remember real trump preening for the cameras, gazing lovingly at a segment of his wall of everlasting shame and autographing it.
Do you remember a justice-centered trump, eyes laser-locked on the camera, promising us that the rule of law applies to everyone, no exceptions? Neither do I! I remember real trump commuting the sentence of his crony Roger Stone and calling out the military to bully and gas peaceful protesters on his path to a Bible-toting photo op.
Do you remember me, sitting in my favorite chair in front of the TV, sucking up every morsel of the RNC sh*t-show? Neither do I! Didn't happen. But thanks to those of you who have the courage and the constitution to watch and report.
Do you remember a leader telling us this "China virus" was no threat and would magically just "fade away"? HELL YEAH! And at every turn, in spite of the RNC's insistence on referring to Covid-19 in the past tense, we need to keep reminding them, and every one else, of the 177,000 (and counting) Americans who have died.
I really appreciate this!!! And I agree with every word if it...
There is a strategy, I suspect, in the failure to pass another relief bill, especially having to do with evictions. People without a fixed address cannot vote. Evictions are highest in cities--where there are generally more Dems than in the rural areas--and among communities of color. This is not just a cynical expansion of extreme misery for the unemployed and the working poor, it is designed to prevent people from voting.
I don't think I am paranoid in believing that every. single. thing. coming out of this White House and the GOP is part of the plan to suppress the vote.
A good and sorrowful point.
I wonder if there's a way that advocates can help these folks who are being evicted find a new place to live--with a relative, perhaps, or whatever it takes. Then as soon as they have a new address, help them register to vote in the new location.
I not only find it impossible to watch even 1 minute of the RNC; I found I had difficulty reading all the way to the end of todays Letter. My anger at the blatant disrespect for the Constitution, the Rule of Law, and political “norms” sickens me. I thank you Heather for putting all of this in print, but this was a tough one to get through.
Prayers for everyone suffering now with illness, financial insecurity, and of coarse those affected by the derecho, wildfires and impending major hurricane.
Re: Melania
I could not watch much of the Convention -Tuesday Evening- but I have read and listened to several critiques. On top of the now typical insults to our intelligence I was appalled, once again, at her inappropriate choice of costume! Silly? Am I too sensitive? I'm in my 80s and have seen a few uniforms on the wrong people.
Olive Drab khaki jacket and skirt, shoulder lapels, metal buttons and leather belt...only missing medals! I don't want to imagine what she was thinking! Did anyone else notice it? Am I giving her too much credit? Was it just poor taste - AGAIN? Or was it a clue to her goal ...the great dictator's "mol"? They're plotting around the kitchen table? Beware that sweet and timid voice and the "empathy" of which she spoke. She SAW the children behind metal fences but I never heard that it upset her. Or that she did anything to stop it.
Thursday night - Trump in his matching uniform? Except that he'll award himself a chest full of medals to go with it! I wish this was all just a very bad dream. Maybe she was hinting that she's planning to do him in so that SHE can be our grand leader and wear the medals???
I'd laugh except that it is way beyond funny.
Absolutely correct. Russian military look. Think she did this once before. Also trump walking into the naturalization ceremony was direct copy of a Putin arrival at a Kremlin ceremony. Joy Reid did a great job in pointing out that the poorly produced role call at the very beginning of the RNC "convention" was in fact the end of convention business. Everything after that has been about the trump monarchy and the royal family. Truly a nightmare for us as individuals and for the USA.
Yes!
Melania was sporting functional yet formal wear from the Eva Braun Collection that lets you take off from the runway on a stealth mission from Slovenia to the Red Square and beyond! This ensemble is perfect for collecting data, spreading propaganda and delivering disinformation.
I think you’ve hit on something there. Noticing the little things are definitely clues to what is happening.
Eva Braun comes to mind.
Re Melania's empathy: Who remembers what was written on the back of her jacket when she visited the McAllen, TX, family separation center? ("I really don't care. Do you?) I didn't listen to her speech (was it last night, Tuesday?). I wouldn't be able to stomach it because that disgusting jacket would have been all I could see in front of me.
It's Russian trolling. That's all. Move on.
So now I understand why Trump so cuddled and praised the Supreme Leader of North Korea, Kim Jong-un. He was looking for something in return – Kim’s secret propaganda formula!
It was on full display last night – embodied most dramatically/fanatically – by that darling duo of democracy, Don Jr. and Kim (Guilfoyle not Jong-un).
The campaign is on … except the two candidates are not running for the same office. DT is running for Supreme Leader – Biden, for President.
He is already having people chant "12 more years"...he is setting himself up to be the supreme ruler.
If payroll taxes are cut, I won't be able to retire in the 2 years I am planning for...that Social Security money is part of my retirement plan. There are a lot of people where I am, at the same age, who have paid into that fund our entire working lives. Don't think for a second he even thinks about that...he is just using it as another weapon to get what he wants with total disregard for the consequences. My disgust with this administration is beyond words.
His motto will be to work till you die, and when you die, another comrade will pick up the spot. I loath where we are heading!
I just don't understand why this threat to Social Security isn't hitting him harder. In a pre-tRump world, even hinting at this would doom a candidate to the dust heap.
I heard one of his toadie advisors on PBS News Hour tonight say, when questioned about this, that "The President isn't going to target Social Security", or words to that effect. Hells bells, he what else do you call cutting the money that funds it with no alternative funding in sight? I think what it amounts to is like so much of the rest of Trump's BS - Never mind what your lying eyes tell you, listen to Dear Leader and believe him. All will be well. Uh-huh
News of the forecast of the Chief Actuary for Social Security was truly a Charlie Brown-Lucy Van Pelt football moment for me. I'm charging toward that ball.
Oh yes...tweeting my senators daily...
I'm 68 - in the same boat.
To me, the most disconcerting, indeed frightening, thing that the Republican convention has brought us thus far is the spectacle of Trump egging his supporters on to cheer for "Twelve more years." This goes beyond contempt for the implicit norms of Liberal Republican Democracy to contempt for Liberal Republican Democracy itself. What more does Trump, and the Republican party itself, need to do to convince the commentariat that this is Fascism, bold and open? And if you don't like the F-word, at least admit that it is its political equivalent?
A corollary to this is the fact that ordinary Republicans are perfectly okay with this. It's one thing to say, with Howard Zinn and many others, that elites tend toward corruption given their power. It is another to say that an entire population of voters are corrupted. For that's what this is: an unwillingness on the part of the average Republican voter to stop relying on their damaged guts and actually THINK about what they're signing on to. It's not just stupid, it's evil. No other word for it. Hannah Arendt might have been wrong about Eichmann himself, but her point in "Eichmann in Jerusalem" had wider application: you don't have to be a monster to perpetrate monstrous deeds. Some of history's greatest crimes were committed and facilitates by "nobodies". It is hard for me to have a shred of sympathy for anyone who continues to support Trump. He is not the only one responsible for this illiberal, un-democratic, anti-republican mess we are in.
As a philosophy nerd, I am squarely in the radically-social-democratic tradition of John Dewey and the pragmatists. But I am starting to take Plato and Aristotle more seriously, even as I disagree with them. They believed that the only solid, inevitable result of democratic regimes was that they were perfect breeding grounds for tyrants. I think they're wrong, but they do provide food for thought.
A bit of a philosophy nerd myself (currently trying to get my teeth around Hegel, Feuerbach, and Schopenhauer--wish me luck) and it seems so much of what is going on now has happened in other places and has been predicted before. I still think that the big overriding m.o. (modus operandi) of these people is "piss off the libtards". THAT right there is the reason behind practically everything they espouse. They have found a cruel, amoral individual and his adherents/family, devoid of any sense of ethics or morals, who will "stick it to the libtards" at every turn. They are giddy every time it happens. They sat and festered for 8 years under Obama, intensifying their hatred, and now just pissing us off is ALL they care about. Problem is, in their zeal to keep us libtards in a constant state of "pissed-off-ness", they're not realising exactly what they have unleashed. They (and us) are being robbed blind, "taken to the cleaners", and an insane autocrat and his coterie of criminals are taking over our government and molding it to suit their ends.
What "ices the cake" is they are being enabled by a political party that, I believe, know in their hearts that their days are numbered. Their electorate's demographics are shrinking and they know it. So it's like they've hitched their wagon to their last hope to gain any legitimacy and hold on to power. They have closed their eyes to what is happening. Their desire for vengeance/revenge for Obama, and every Democratic leader since Gingrich, has blinded them. Party is all that matters, even at the expense of our Constitution, our governance, the country they profess to love. "As long as we can keep 'pissing off the libtards', it's all okay"...careful what you wish for.
You are absolutely right about this. "Pissing off the Libtards" while the USPS, Social Security, OSHA, etc. ad nauseam are being dismantled before their eyes. Love may be more powerful, but we do ourselves no favors to think that Hate is almost as powerful.
As for Hegel, I have a book to recommend: "Hegel" by David Fritzman. In the Polity Press Classic Thinkers series. It does the impossible, that is, he makes Hegel clear and unconfusing, and relates his work to the present age very well. Highly recommended.
Hegel is pretty dense stuff...one of the German school of philosophers, among others, who influenced the works of Richard Wagner, one of my lifelong passions/obsessions. I'll have to check out the Fritzman. THANK you!
Thank you, Heather, for another great synopsis of a day and evening I didn't have the stomach to watch in real time.
Was talking to a friend last night who works for a small, local municipality. One of the main functions for the town is providing water and sewer services. The town was established in the early 1700s, I believe, by Quakers. During the textile heyday of North Carolina, there were several mills in town; gone now, of course. The population is largely white, blue-collar and elderly.
I don't know what percentage are on disability, but it's large.
Many of the residents are diabetic, obese and living paycheck to paycheck, if they're working. Due to Covid-19, like most places, the town had suspended cutting residents' water or charging late fees for non-payment. They did encourage residents to sign a pay agreement, once the moratorium on cut-offs ended, so that they could get caught-up on back payments. They gave people a month's notice, put it on their bills, on the town sign, on the web site, etc. The very last day to do a pay agreement, a couple of dozen bozos show up to fill one out. Yesterday was cut-off day - over 40 people (in a town of around 1500) had their water cut off. And two called, screaming that they'd been cut off and when told they hadn't filled out the agreement, said, "I didn't know anything about it." One came in to put $20 on her over $200 bill.
These are all Trump supporters. The town is full of MAGA hats and Confederate flags on bumpers of big, honking trucks. And some are wearing a pistol on their hip. (I am not anti-gun, BTW).
These are the people Trump is aiming at and who hang on his every word. If he were to end FICA and kill SS Disability, these are the same people who, deprived of even that small life support, would blame the Democrats. Guaranteed.
I was reading recently that this payroll tax change makes Social Security collapse (become insolvent, unable to pay) by 2023. What if this became a relentless message on the TV, on Fox News, on billboards in these crazy communities? Democrats need to buy huge ad spots in Fox and do nothing but pound this message in--Trump is endangering your Social Security, folks. Just three more years, and these you won't get your Social Security check. I suppose they would just dismiss it as "fake news". I thought the Ronald Reagan ad from Lincoln Project was highly effective, but again, they'd just dismiss it with a sneer, probably. It's a cult, through and through. I was reading recently a carefully done study in PA of Republican versus Democrat response to the USPS slowdowns. All this survey asked--in areas that were rural, with older relatively poor citizens who are highly dependent on USPS for meds and other deliveries--was a single question: how dependent people felt they were upon USPS showing up with their mail each day. Republicans declared they weren't all that dependent--although they clearly were as dependent as the Democrats. The statisticians concluded it was party affiliation that led to a definite skewing of their "perception" of USPS being necessary. So terribly, terribly depressing.
C'mon, Bloomberg and the Lincoln Project!
I am reading Paul Begala’s book “You’re Fired”. I highly recommend it. The chapter I read last night was called “This chapter will bear Trump, I guarantee “. He says exactly what you are saying that we need to publicize, shout loudly, say early and often that he wants to take away your Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. He says set a little buzzer on your watch that goes off every ten minutes and when it does repeat the phrase to anyone you can. While this may be a funny exaggeration it is true. That’s what we need to do! Copy the link in your Facebook and Twitter feeds. Whatever it takes.
Not only can I not watch, but I find it difficult to even read about the circus that is the RNC. Makes me sick, angry, and very sad for this country. I will be taking my ballot for the primaries to a safe ballot box today. Wish I was taking the Nov ballot instead. We cannot be rid of this man, his family, and the troupe of sycophants soon enough!
Night 2 was colored by US flags, Marines, White House moulding and a speaking Melania. God was invoked so often, I thought I was in church! The whole show was colored by grievance, but the tone was « kinder » than Night 1. When you have a farmer and immigrant business woman thanking Supreme Leader Trump, the truth and Democrats have a bigger problem. The economy always rules elections, and Joe better counterpunch fast and well. At 69, I don’t want to lose the post office and social security! How about the brazen lies told by the former FL AG. That was the biggest lie moment for me. Thanks, HCR, for detailing the Hatch Act violations which color the entire show. A caution: we Dems still don’t know how to respond to Trump. We better learn fast. The election is coming up. No more Mr. Nice Guy. ❤️🤍💙
So we have these laws..and no enforcement mechanism. What good are they?
This is actually the intended effect of our separation of powers. The actions of Congress require the Executive Branch for, well, execution, for lack of a better word. Even if the Senate was not terribly corrupt, having the Executive branch in the hands of an autocrat make enforcement impossible, for the moment; it's the ultimate version of a "dirty" cop. We have to wait, in agony, for the election and hope that the Body Politic votes for the continuation of our republic, and that the "deep state" they rail at (which is simply the entrenched, non-partisan, ranks of the governmental bureaucracy) can keep us afloat until then.
I will not watch the trump reality show otherwise known as the RNC, but wait for your clear eyed take on it. I cannot help but think the RNC is simply a display of the most baseless dog and pony show that panders to those that thrive on a buffet of disregard for facts and blantant abuse of power and laws. I would like to believe that this Administration has gone as low as it possible can but each day it seems to adjust that bar to a new lower level.
I have not watched any of the convention as I decided long ago watching and hearing the president was not helping my mental health. I follow the news in other venues. I try not to be fearful as that only saps my energy. However, I am retired and although have a small retirement pension and some investments, part of my retirement plan is Social Security. Dissolving this program would definitely put a strain on me although I can still work if I can find a job. I do know of people who depend entirely on the small amount they receive from Social Security. And many of these cannot see past the abortion issue and will vote against their own best interests. As aside, I do not for one minute believe the president is anti-abortion (I refuse to use pro-life to describe the anti-abortion movement) any more than I believe he adheres to the teachings of the Christian faith. I have to sign off as I need to send an email to my state's Democratic party about the campaign against McConnell. If ever we need to go a little lower, it is now.
Why-o-why was there not an effort to stop some of this stuff? What are the enforcement provisions of the Hatch Act? I am presuming that Nancy P et al wanted to hold their fire but this is a sickening desecration. The Dems just come off seeming powerless and naive - and it doesn't feel so hot to support them.
I think the problem is Dems and Lincoln’s (said because the R’s are not the party we think and many left) are following the law and have never faced lawlessness of this magnitude. Heather...what is the recourse for all of this when they obviously don’t care about the Constitution or Laws?
Well, of course the second amendment isn't just for Republicans, but that's an impossible thought. I'm still banking on the vote, and my confidence that a blue wave will be dramatic enough to wash these inept felons out to sea. I'm putting in five or six hours a week doing Dem business and I recommend everyone consider what they can add to the cause. I'm curious, though: what the administration is doing is illegal, but who has standing to contest it in court?
And another problem, besides unlimited pardon power, for example, is American voters and the House are solely n the hands of a corrupt Senate. And here we sit.
What is law? So many laws are being violated, like the Hatch Act, and yet nothing happens. We sit and watch the violations one after another. Unable to enforce anything.
I keep asking this over and over: "WHY do we have all these laws if they are broken again and again and again and nobody does anything???" It's like the system was not constructed to allow for someone like Trump and his enablers, bereft of any sense of morality and ethics, to make a mockery of our laws. No one could ever have imagined such depravity. Voting is just one critical step, but it seems a rather impotent weapon as it happens rather infrequently, especially when compared to the speed and ease of these people shredding our Constitution. We are witnessing a perfect storm threatening our country that, hard to believe, is even more destructive than the massive hurricane currently heading for our Gulf coast. (If there are any of y'all in that area near the coast, PLEASE GET OUT NOW! It is going to be really bad. No joke.) 2020 just keeps on killing us...literally.
Trump and Friends are the ultimate "dirty cop," except the concept has expanded to include everyone at the top of the Executive Branch of the federal government. So, to answer your question, we have laws so that an honest Executive can execute them, and an honest judiciary can order their enforcement. Sorry for the basic civics lecture, but it's these basic governmental structures that have been shockingly, quickly, eroded. Hopefully, these basic structures can be restored just as quickly, given good, honorable management.
I hope that Biden and Company are compiling a long, detailed list of people they will fire at their first opportunity and an equally detailed list of more competent, non-partisan replacements. They will need to be very organized and very good at their jobs, right off. Fortunately, there is a large cadre of good, experienced people Trump has forced out who can probably assist in the restoration of governance, provided Biden and Company are smart enough to reach out to them. They will have an enormous raft of wiped hard-drives, shredded files, and "midnight regulations" to deal with when they walk into their offices on Wednesday, January 20, 2021.
Lets not assume that Biden is going to win and the republican think tanks don't know what they are doing. The republican handlers have shown time and again to be much sharper than their counterparts to come this far and get this much mileage out of a dummy show horse.. They have been able to overcome so many crisis that would have sunk any other presidents because of their tactics and deft messaging that you have to wonder if the leadership on the Dem side are just paralyzed with confusion and hand wringing. Do something!
An excerpt from an article below that appeared in the new statesmen:
The second figure is 40 per cent. That is the share of young voters in battleground states, such as Michigan and North Carolina, who have yet to be contacted by the Biden campaign. It underscores the concern in parts of the Democratic Party that it is failing to reach out to the progressive left.
Young Democratic voters are typically, though not always, more left-leaning than older Democrats. Some in the progressive wing were enraged by the DNC after their most eloquent tribune, the congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (“AOC”), was allocated a mere minute to speak, and at which none of the other prominent left-wing congresswomen – Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib and Ayanna Pressley – spoke at all.
https://www.newstatesman.com/international/places/2020/08/do-not-be-fooled-polling-donald-trump-could-very-well-win-second-term
I think that your caveat is very well founded, and the 2016 election made it glaringly obvious that polls only imperfectly measure the attitudes of people willing to talk to pollsters, a population that usually doesn't even include me. And my 20 year old daughter claims to know more than one person intending to vote for Kanye West.
You exhort me to "Do something!" Do you have any suggestions? I'm already a pollworker, I donate what money I can to the Democratic Party and to select candidates, and everyone I know personally is counting the days until they can vote for Biden and a straight Dem ticket. And as tempting as it is sometimes to stand in the street and start screaming, that technique, while briefly enjoyable, doesn't sound very persuasive as to the groups referred to in your New Statesman article.
In other words, I think your caution is very well grounded, and that hubris was a major factor in Ms. Clinton's loss. Trump is clearly counting on the deluded ignorance of the poor and poorly educated, and the venality of the well-off; people with one or both of those characteristics form a large and active voter bloc.
In light of this, what further actions might you recommend? I'll readily take your suggestions, even including the "screaming in the street" option. (Pay me a couple of C-notes and I'll even post it on Youtube. :) )
Not you per se. That was a frustrated exhortation to the Democratic think tank to engage more effectively. Why have they still not engaged the million of youth voters a majority of whom are left leaning? Even a political novice like me can see that AOC deserved more airtime at the recent DNC convention than John Kasich. I may not agree with the views of prominent republican strategists like Karl Rove and Frank Luntz but there is no questioning their brilliance nor their ability to communicate effectively. Do you see anyone that incisive in the Democratic Party ?
By the way your commitment as you describe it above seems exemplary. I am not doing nearly as much as I should be, to be honest.
I'm sure that I'm not doing as much as I could do, either; that's the special guilt that comes from being aware of the danger.
I don't really see anyone leading the Democratic Party, period. I don't know who they are, nor do I know their background, qualifications, or theory of the battle. I'm confessing my ignorance, here; I wouldn't know a Democratic political operative from a Denisovan pole-vaulting oracle. Telling me their names may vaguely help, if you know them, but only if there is copious amounts of material on the internet about them, like there is for Rove, Luntz, and Stone.
But whoever they are, they are probably white, middle-aged, college educated guys like me. Since they are likely sympathetic to diversity issues, there are probably a few high-level white, middle-aged, college educated women around, plus a scattering of other demographic representatives, but as a group they probably reflect the power stratum of American society.
And they probably don't really know how to communicate to the youth voters, and are probably leery of devoting too many resources to a group that too often turn up at the protest, but not the polls.
I sympathize: I don't know how to communicate with the youth voters, either. I can barely communicate with my own children, members of that group. To them, I am simply an old man who is completely out of touch with their reality, but for whom they have fondness. All my education and experience seems irrelevant to them, and for all I know, it is. To me, they are beautiful, mysterious creatures, always on the edge of panic, pushing their way through the murk that I lived in when I was their age.
I wonder if the Republicans actually have a strategy for mobilizing the youth vote, or if they instead simply focus on suppressing it. The latter would likely be an easier task, given their pre-existing tendencies.
I do hope that AOC and her friends can tap into the communication channels inhabited by the youth, and mobilize them for Biden. It's probably even cheap to do, since distribution costs on the internet are a fraction of traditional media; all they need are good production values and attractive programming.
Even then, it will probably be a hard sell for many of the younger demographics.
I am alarmed, to say the least. The people who support Trump and his administration either stand to gain handsomely from his continued rule or they are stone cold stupid.
Trump's Alternative Facts are killing us.
I think the Trump loyalists in the administration are laughing all the way to the bank. A more cynical, two-faced group has never existed.
Trumplestilskin’s charade has gone on for far too long! When will someone just put a stop to his shenanigans? Enough already! How can he continue to break ethical laws without any consequences?
When will the GOP realize that pulling the payroll tax will be a disaster for our elderly and people with disabilities? All these rich members of Congress will never suffer the consequences of diminishing or eradicating these social services. They have it made with their guaranteed retirement funds.
I could not bring myself to watch a single minute of the RNC — and thank goodness for that as the nepotism being brought into play is beyond acceptable. All I can say after these theatrics is: please vote! Our lives, our futures, and those of our children and grandchildren depend on it!
“I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and wouldn’t lose any voters, OK?
It’s, like, incredible.”
Donald Trump, Iowa - January 23, 2016
“By the many times he has broken laws with impunity while in office, he likely would not be arrested either.
It’s, like, deplorable.”
Rob Boyte, Miami Beach - August 25, 2020
I dug thru some old memes about our Law Breaking "Law & Order" president.
Put them up on twitter:
https://twitter.com/roboyte/status/1298671156560527361?s=20